


Tower's Tale

by Cheerful_Solitude



Category: Undertale, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: Adventure, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22304350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheerful_Solitude/pseuds/Cheerful_Solitude
Summary: Legends say that those who climb the Tower never return, so why did Bam decide to do so? Was it fate? Luck? Or a desire for something more?Either way, he was trapped, and the only way out is through the top of the Tower. No problem, except that there is an entire society of trapped monsters who want all humans, like him, dead. Luckily for Bam, he meets a fellow human who has lived in this Tower for a long time, and knows just how to guide him through the Monsters' territory.But, as it always is, there's much more than meets the surface of the Tower.
Relationships: Twenty-Fifth Baam & Koon Aguero Agnis
Comments: 15
Kudos: 33





	1. When the World was Full of Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome!  
> If there's something that might trigger people (heads up: that's rarely going to happen), I will put it at the top of the chapter... There's nothing today I have to warn you of, though.  
> Enjoy this first chapter!

_Once upon a time, two races ruled over Earth:_

_Humans, and Monsters._

_Conflicts had always existed between the two races, and, eventually, these conflicts lead to a war._

_Battlecries replaced music, dust replaced air, and the humans emerged victorious, and they felt vicious enough to build a tower and trap all Monsters inside with a magic spell._

_They called the tower after its mountain, “Ebott”, but was only remembered as the Tower._

_Many years passed, and between these years, humans were said to have traveled to the Tower in order to conquer its heights, but none returned._

* * *

“Is that really all I have?” Bam said to no-one in particular. It was a small backpack that had travelled with him for however-many years. Inside, a first-aid kit, a flashlight with new batteries, a pack of extra batteries, some snacks… As of personal belongings he only had a notebook and a pen, which wasn’t going to be very useful in his coming trip, but still nice to keep about. 

All the other children of the orphanage were playing outside. It was mid-afternoon: not the best time to set out but better than sneaking out at night. At least now, the nuns were distracted with the rampage of the playground and he had the blessing of daylight to see where he was going. Given that, he put the backpack on and went out through the back door, where a few bikes were parked. Bam, as if he’d done this multiple times, mounted a bike and started pedaling. 

He didn’t have a brilliant plan. All he was going to do was go by as fast as he could and hope the nuns weren’t fast enough to catch him. Perhaps them realizing that he was escaping to then finding keys to the “nun-van” was going to give him enough time to get a good head start.

And it did. Somehow.

He didn’t look back when Sister Khane shouted his name, or when the playground gradually quieted down. Bam kept pedaling and looking straight as his final destination: the Tower.

He didn’t know how to explain it, but he felt like he absolutely had to go there. He heard the news about yet another missing person a few weeks back, last seen at the bottom of the trail for the mountain. Since then, there was a dormant feeling that seemingly woke up. Bam couldn’t explain it, but he felt it, and it was all that mattered to him. Plus, he was already on his way there, so it wasn’t like he could turn back now. 

And, in a way, he felt free. 

* * *

When the humans built the Tower, their wish was to dispose it as far away from their rebuilding civilization. With the expansion of humanity’s numbers and wish for more space, however, a few towns had called the valleys surrounding the Tower’s mountain their home. Naturally, most travelers adventuring Mt. Ebott were from these towns, as Bam was. 

The Mt. Ebott hike had gone well for Bam, considering he had never climbed a mountain before. The only injury was a scratch on his cheek—which he was putting a bandage over just at that moment— from one of the bare twisting branches on the way. Bam was regretting not bringing a machete with him. But, he had arrived at the base of the Tower, and the trip was worth the sight.

Bam gazed in astonishment at the size of the Tower. It did not seem like much from his nameless town, but now that he stood at its gate did he realize…

“It’s huge!” 

Staring above him wasn’t a risk for his eyes, as the Tower loomed a shadow over him, covering the sun as one would a deep secret. If one were to stand on the top at night, one could pull the stars out of the sky. 

Looking to his left, Bam saw one half of the wall extend until he had to step back several times to see its end, but he might as well have been imagining that was the end, because, if he tried hard enough, he could still see walls beyond. To his right, the deal was the same.

Now Bam looked in front of him. Two oak gates with elaborate carvings of old heroes adorning every inch of them stared him down, challenging him to open them. He approached the gates and laid his side against the slim gap between them to try to get a peek inside. Seeing nothing, Bam took his bag off and placed it on the side, taking the flashlight out of the bag and with him. He turned it on and it shone on the face of one of the heroes of the gate. 

Bam pushed himself against the gate, and it gave a grunt as it dragged against the floor and opened. He stepped inside, artificial light on hand not helping to see anything inside. Bam stepped forward.

And fell without warning.

* * *

Bam didn’t know how long he was knocked out for, but when consciousness seeped back into him, he saw only darkness around him.

Somehow, he had survived the fall without any injuries. He sat down and looked around him. Left and right and front and back was all darkness, but below him there was a bed of flowers. Golden, shining, and giving him enough light to see his silhouette against them, as well as the silhouette of someone in front of him.

“Greetings!” The figure said. From what Bam could see in the dim light, he was looking at a male of roughly his age, perhaps a year or two older than him, judging by his voice. There wasn’t much he could see about the boy’s physical features.

“Hello,” Bam replied, because there wasn’t much to say, and because he wanted to be polite. Maybe the boy could tell him what happened. “What is your name?”

“Just call me Khun,” the boy replied. Bam thought it was a strange way of phrasing an introduction, but it would do. “And you are?”

“The 25th Bam,” Bam replied. An obscure name, but it was what everyone else called him, so he said just that. He’d heard Bam meant ‘Night’ in a different language, but that was unnecessary information.

“That’s a nice name,” the other boy replied. Khun, was it? Bam had a hard time remembering names.

“Thank you,” Bam said. Simple politeness. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the Tower.” Khun smiled. He waited for a reaction, and when he didn’t get one, he said, “The Monsters’ territory”

Silence fell between them. Of course Bam knew he was in the Tower! But yelling that out was being rude, and this boy might help Bam get his surroundings.

The emptiness of the… place they were in seemed to weigh on them. If you strained your ears enough, a _whoosh_ created by your mind filled your ears. Like placing a cup in your ear to understand any sort of invisible beings that might be hiding inside.

“I thought you would say I was dead,” Bam finally replied, assuming it was his turn to speak, and wanting to break the silence. “There is no way I survived that fall, and…”

“It’s more believable, is it not?” Khun finished for him. “I understand. I felt that way, too.”

A question popped into Bam’s head. “How do you know you’re not dead too, then?”

“I am now,” Khun said with a tone that disturbed Bam. It sounded like he was aware of it, as well as very _okay_ with it. “But I assure you, it wasn’t the fall that killed me. So, you’re not dead, and you’re in the Tower.”

Bam looked around him. Not like there was much to see, anyway. “Is there a way out?”

Khun contemplated for a moment, humming to himself before he replied, “There is, but why would you want to leave so soon? Surely, you came to Ebott for a reason.”

There was an undeniable truth to that, but the feeling… the thrilling desire Bam felt on his way here was gone, and there were only questions left. 

“Maybe it was a feeling of…” Khun continued, “Missing something? Like you _felt_ that you needed to come here?”

“Did you feel that, too?”

Bam didn’t need a reply to tell the other boy was smiling. It was dark to see anything at all, so he stood up. He wanted to get out of here. Not only had he nothing to do besides talking to this strange, strange boy, who definitely knew more than what he was letting on, as if he _knew_ more about Bam than Bam did himself… what was he thinking again?

Bam looked back at where he assumed Khun was sitting. He picked a golden flower, its glow, once separated from the rest, served as a light source, more helpful than his own funny toy of a light (where was the flashlight, anyway? He’d lost it on the fall). If everything in his journey was going to be dark from now on, he might as well take a light with him. 

Bam could see a bit more of his surroundings when he pointed the flower around him. The walls of the place he was in were cave-like, with jagged points of rock threatening to kill anything that touched them. Bam thanked whatever God was out there for not hitting those and splitting his head open.

He pointed the flower at the boy, who was staring at him intently. He nearly flinched, even though he was expecting that stare and the smile. It was the smile of someone who was analyzing you, to see how they could use you for their own benefit. Bam didn’t like it. 

“Do you… have anywhere to go?” Bam inquired. He prayed the boy would say yes, and that he would leave him. He wanted to get far from him. Far from the smile that bore its way into his skull. Screw getting help from this guy.

A pause. Khun’s gaze never left Bam for a second. The light from the flowers below highlighted his sharp features: there wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t say confidence and was up to the brim with an aura of royalty. Terrifying, cold royalty. And the smile…

“No, not really.” Somehow, this person also pulled off smiling while talking. “Do you?”

“No,” Bam admitted. He looked away from the boy and felt somewhat of a relief, but he still felt Khun’s eyes monitoring his every movement. He half-walked, half-slid away from the boy and the bed of flowers.

“You might want to know a bit more about Monsters before you head off,” Khun said. Bam silently cursed the way the conversation was heading. “Don’t you want a guide? I’ve been through the Tower myself quite a few times, and…”

Bam looked back at the boy. Not because he wanted to, but because he was trying to be polite. 

“I know a way out of here,” Khun finished. “Don’t you want to know?”

Bam nodded slightly. He didn’t like the way Khun would phrase himself to try to include Bam in his way of thinking. It didn’t feel like a conversation, this entire, ‘I think this, don’t you?’ trick Khun was pulling on him. Bam felt like he was being manipulated into a scheme.

Still, Bam felt inclined to ask, “Do you want to come along?”

The boy stood up. Only then did Bam see how fragile Khun really looked. He was slim, and it made him looked tall, despite only being an inch or so above Bam. Bam immediately decided to keep his distance. He did not want that gaze of his looking down on him. 

“Sure,” Khun said, and pointed behind Bam, “Head that way and we will reach the Ruins, the Tower’s first floor.”

“Is this floor zero, then?”

“It’s a test to see if you can survive falling,” Khun pointed at the walls. “Thankfully, everyone who has come has survived the fall.”

“You know other humans?” Bam asked, a little more excited than he expected. It was the nerves. “Humans live here?”

Khun looked back at Bam.

“No,” he said, his Cheshire grin widening, “They all died to the Monsters.”


	2. Nascency is Both a Blessing and a Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has supported Tower’s Tale so far! Every single one of you motivates me ^^
> 
> No triggers in this chapter, unless you have anthophobia. If so, I’m terribly sorry.

‘ _What does this place want from me?’_ Was Khun’s first thought when he woke up. He felt like he had fallen the first time: hopeless and lost as to what had just happened. Except this time, there was a cushion of flowers below him. He sighed. If he planned to get any answers out of this situation, he had to ask the right questions.

_I know “where” I am…_ He counted on his fingers. _I need to ‘what’ or ‘who’, and especially, ‘when’._ He doubted it was a short time since his death, judging by the shining flowers that hadn't been there to receive his first fall.

God, he hated flowers. 

Out of all the ways to die, he had picked flowers. A little stab or fall would’ve been _convenient_ , but the point was to make it accidental, so flowers was a better option for that. As if it was worth anything in the end.

He was dead, and his brother was also dead, and the monsters were still underground. He thought so, because there was no other reason why he _should_ be back other than to finish what he came to do in the first place. Who should he blame first? Arlene? Icarus? Asriel? Himself? The boy a few feet away from him?

The latter was the only possible option; the only one alive in his list of escape-goats. 

Khun would ask the boy after he woke up from his knock-out. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to wait to long.

So, how should Khun get his answers? With a threat to the neck or a stab on the back?

* * *

Bam held the flower in front of him as it illuminated the walls around him. They were made of some purple-blue rock, with an occasional dark green shrub chucked between them. 

“I am definitely dead,” he thought aloud, suddenly aware of the loudness in his voice.

“You are not dead,” Khun assured him.

Stopping in his tracks, Bam turned around and faced Khun. He seemed to have gotten a flower of his own too, but had quickly decided to take off one of the petals and drop it on the floor behind them. Bam prayed he wouldn’t end the same way as he asked, “How much longer do we have to walk?”

“Not much longer,” Khun said, not stopping and walking past Bam. There was a chill to him as he strolled. Bam brushed it off as his imagination.

It was Bam now who followed Khun across the dark tunnel. There was no sight forward, and when Bam looked behind him, he couldn’t see the bed of flowers, but the single petal Khuhn dropped off, shining on the floor despite being separate from its origin. At least now he could see where he came from.

_So that’s why he dropped it,_ Bam realized. _He isn’t just being weird_.

Bam looked in front of him just in time to stop himself from walking into Khun. He felt that chill again. Khun was _dead cold_.

“Why are we stopping?”

“There’s a weed on the way.”

“A what?”

“Behold.” Khun stepped aside, letting Bam see, “A weed.”

It was a flower. A sun-yellow flower, with a brown stem and leaves sprayed with hints of pink. It wasn’t much different from the flowers Bam and Khun were holding, but it was enough so that one could call it a different species. First, it was big. Bigger than a sunflower fed by the very best nutrients and sunlight. Second, it didn’t shine, so that was somewhat natural.

If it wasn’t for the face staring back at the two boys.

“Howdy!”

And, it could talk too, apparently.

“I’m Rachel!”

Bam must have looked like he was having an internal panic attack because the flower “Hey-hey-ed” at him a couple of times before he reacted.

“Uhhh… hi.” Basic politeness. A little rough, but it would do. 

“You look like you’re lost,” the flower stated, slowly now, as if speaking to a younger child, when Bam was clearly in the higher ground. 

“I’m fine,” Bam gritted. He stepped forward to inspect the flower, and regretting the action as he was now between Khun and Rachel, two smiling creatures, neither meaning much of it and both wanting an exchange from their strained assistance. 

“You must be new,” the flower continued. Her voice was a balancing blade between a rasp and ajingle. “Rarely anyone walks these empty passages anymore, not since the monsters climbed the Tower to get out.”

Bothersome or not, the flower was still giving away information, so Bam stayed quiet as the flower ranted about time gone by. He heard Khun behind him yawn.

“…It didn’t help much, because the Barrier prevents anyone from getting out, though that still doesn’t stop monsters from trying.” And then the flower realized she was giving too much away for nothing. “Sorry, you might want to know how to go back home, no?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Then, you need to learn how this world works,” Rachel chimed. 

Bam glanced behind him, where Khun was standing. He had taken off another petal of the flower and dropped it, but his brow was narrowed into a face of suspicion. Was he annoyed that the flower had addressed Bam and not him? 

The light in the cave dimmed, swallowed by the hushing darkness. Bam looked at his own flower, its light dying. It looked like the flowers had a limited shine-time, until Bam strained his eyes and, even in the complete darkness, he could still _see_ the flower. And the hand holding it. And the talking flower in front of him. 

It was as if the color was drained from the world and now only lines remained. Silhouettes and the lines that separated the front from the back, what was Bam’s hand and what was not. 

In this state, the flower spoke a rehearsed line as if nothing had occurred. “Do you see that red heart in front of you?”

Bam looked at his chest. In front of the stripes across his shirt he saw clearly what the flower asked for: a red heart floating where it hadn’t been before. It gave off a small light of its own.

“That’s your SOUL,” Rachel matter-of-factly said, “The very culmination of your being.”

_No, the culmination of my being is 60% water,_ Bam thought.

“Your SOUL starts very weak, but it can grow stronger if you gain LV.”

Bam recorded every word in his head like gospel, because he didn’t understand what the flower meant by any of it. Like student in a class, he was taking notes to inquire later, and he had a few questions already at hand, like, how had he not known about SOULs until now? Or, why would he need a stronger SOUL? And, “What’s ‘LV’?”

“LV stands for LOVE,” Rachel answered, “Monsters share it with these… friendliness pellets”

Floating above and around Rachel appeared five or six twirling beads. Bam blinked to try to make sense to them. They appeared out of _nowhere_. Not there in a second, and appearing when Rachel asked for them. 

“Go on, catch them!” Like a band of bullets, the ‘friendliness pellets’ came flying towards Bam. Was he meant to snatch them with his hand?

In an instant, he felt Khun pushing him to the floor, the pellets harmlessly flying by his head. 

“Whatever you do,” Khun told him, his voice dropping its manipulative tone and replacing it with a more determined one, “Don’t get hit by those bullets.”

“Hey, buddy,” Rachel taunted, “You missed them.” She didn’t seem bothered by Khun pushing Bam. “Care to try again?” 

The ring of pellets appeared again and flew towards Bam. Instinctually, he moved to the side and the pill-like seeds collided against the floor and disappeared, like the first droplets of rain falling on the ground. Bam didn’t know who he should trust, but he thought that even if the flower was being helpful, a stronger SOUL or whatever wasn’t his priority. Moreover, Khun was a human as far as he could tell, and the flower was a monster…

When in doubt, trust your own kind.

“Is this a joke?” Rachel demanded. The jingle to her voice was gone, and her face was showing more than just a sign of desperation. “Run. Into. The. Bullet—” She interrupted herself, took a deep breath, and tried to feed a fake sweetness to her voice, but was potentially stuffing honeycombs into a turkey “…Friendliness pellets!”

Rachel launched another wave of seeds, which Bam dodged with ease. He didn’t know what the game was, but he was hoping it’d be over soon, and an explanation would come sooner. 

Bam looked back at Rachel, who was staring down at the floor below her, as if trying to make sense of what was happening. Strange, considering the one that didn’t understand anything going on at all was Bam.

“You know what’s going on here, don’t you?” Rachel whispered, still not looking at Bam. He stepped back. Whatever the flower was up to, it didn’t comfort him. “You are just making fun of me.” 

And all around him, a ring of several not-so-friendly pellets enclosed Bam. Whatever they were going to do, it wasn’t good news. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever God was out there… and they listened. 

A _whoosh_ sound and fire cackling made Bam open his eyes and see…

Rachel had a burn on one of the six petals, resting at the upper right corner of her head. It ruined her sun-like appearance, and behind her, a creature like Bam had never seen before. 

So tall that it could almost touch the ceiling of the cave—if he could see it—, the creature rose above him. In the strange lightning of the place, he could see two curved horns adorning its head and two long ears resting on the monster’s shoulders. White fur covered every inch of its body that was not wrapped under clothes: a long, trailing skirt and a shirt with a symbol on it. Its face was shaped into a snout, and atop it, a pair of plate-shaped glasses. The creature’s eyes couldn’t be seen behind them.

The monster spoke with a quiet, melodic voice, but stern and glaring at the burned flower beneath it. Rachel was a punished child under the shadow of the monster. “What a miserable creature,” the monster said, and as the voice was female, Bam assumed the monster was so. She continued, “Torturing such a poor and innocent youth.”

The monster reminded Bam of the head nun back in the orphanage, so he took an immediate liking to her. She spoke to him now, the sternness from her voice gone as if it had never been there. “Don’t be afraid, my child,” she said, “I am Goseng. Yeo Goseng, the caretaker of the Ruins.”

There was that place, the first floor, the one Khun mentioned. Speaking of, he was standing behind him in a trance-like state, staring at the monster, as if expecting her to recognize him. Was he sad that Bam was getting all the attention? Hard to pity when Bam had just gone through a near-death experience with the flower. It was strange, however, that the more commanding boy wasn’t being acknowledged by anyone so far.

Bam looked back at the monster, Goseng. She was waiting for a reply.

“Hello,” Bam muttered out, then cleared his throat, and said a little louder, “Hello.”

Slowly, he noticed his source of light, the golden flower, was getting back its glow. Colors were returning to his surroundings. His red SOUL vanished. A little behind Goseng, Bam saw the goat creature had her own basket of golden flowers, though they were sprawled on the floor from when Goseng rustily dropped them. Goseng noticed him staring at them and the water bucket, with its contents puddling the unfortunate flowers that fell out.

“I was going to water the flowers by the gate,” Goseng explained, “Someone has to take care of them, and I take the chance to see if any other humans had fallen down.” She let out a sigh, “It seems I was a little late.”

“No, no!” Bam waved a hand in front of him in dismissal, “You were just in time!”

Goseng smiled. Bam noticed two fangs at the corners of her mouth. He was still amazed at the existence of monsters, and that he was lucky enough to meet one… or two by now. Luckier that he met a nice monster. 

“Come on, now,” Goseng motioned for Bam to follow, “I’ll guide you through the catacombs, and we can get more water for the flowers. I wouldn’t mind a helper today.”

Bam nodded with enthusiasm. He glanced once again at Khun. It was clear that Khun was being blatantly ignored, but it didn’t seem because Goseng or Rachel disliked him. 

It was as if he wasn’t there at all. 

* * *

Whatever Bam pictured the Tower to be was nothing compared to what he was seeing.

“Welcome to the Ruins, my child,” said Goseng, her voice echoing around the cathedral surrounding them. The walls were made brick tinted in shades of magenta, each individual piece carefully in place. They were a little faded from age, but overall very well preserved. Columns, occasionally interrupting the pattern of bricks, rose several meters above Bam and held a glass-pattern of a blue sky. There was no light on the other side—the only light came from torches on the walls—, but if there were, Bam imagined he’d be bathed in crystalized blue, like being underwater.Looking back down, he saw the occasional plant squeezing their way through any survivable gap on the walls, but he thought they only added to the charm the Ruins was giving him so far. Goseng was incredible at her care-taking job.

On the way, Goseng had been telling Bam tales of how the monsters, having found no way to climb the spikes or open the gate, tasked themselves with rebuilding their civilization inside the Tower. The first floor was called “Home” (“The King is lousy with names,” Goseng commented), before the monsters found new floors above and left this one. Very few lived here now; mostly monsters seeking exclusion from the rest of the Tower’s influence. 

“The Ruins are immense,” Goseng warned, while Bam listened very carefully. “Since this place was home to all monsters for a period of time, we had to build many structures to accommodate all of us. Fearing another attack from the humans, we also constructed winding passages and traps to buy us time if that were to happen again. I want you to stay close so you don’t get lost, alright?”

Bam gave a single nod and followed. He wondered where they were heading, but trusted Goseng so far, and Khun wasn’t commenting on anything, so he assumed he was safe. At least for now.

Goseng strode up a flight of stairs leading to a different room. She waited for Bam at the open gate, but his attention was somewhere else: a star hovering above the walkway to the stairs. 

“A SAVE point,” Khun commented before Bam had a chance to formulate a question. “No monsters can see them, and very few humans can.” With a smile, he added, “Consider yourself lucky.”

“What is it for?” Bam inquired. 

“How about I show you?” Khun stepped forward and stood next to the SAVE point. “It will be strange if Goseng saw you waving at the air, so…”

“You want me to tell her to go away?” Bam asked. “Do it yourself.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but no one can see me except for you.”

Great. Another thing to add to the list of bizarre occurrences in less than twenty-four hours. As if it wasn’t enough with discovering an entire civilization and being at risk of death twice, Bam now had to concern himself with ghosts only he could see. 

Bam sighed and _very politely_ asked Goseng to wait for him in the next room. The walls did the job of echoing his voice loud and clear, so he didn’t need to raise his voice too much. Goseng, slightly confused, agreed and moved on. 

When she was out of sight, Bam turned to Khun and the small star. “Alright. Explain.”

“Touch it.”

“What’s it gonna do?”

“You’ll see.”

Bam eyed him suspiciously, but obeyed. Immediately, a dark, white-bordered board popped up behind the star. There were words written on it, but Bam couldn’t read anything. He could make out some letters, but any language was gibberish to him in written form. He saw a section on the left corner and identified an “U” followed by an “I”, so he assumed it said something about the Ruins. To the left, numbers and letters. Numbers were easier to understand, so Bam concluded that it was the date. 

The twenty-sixth of…

_A… U…._

August, perhaps. And the year. 

“2080?” Khun whispered and shook his head. Only then did Bam wonder how long Khun had been dead for before waking up, but it would be rude to ask, so he filed the question for later.

Bam intently stared at the board’s lower section. There seemed to be two choices on it and a small red heart, similar to the SOUL from earlier, hovering over the option on the left. Bam assumed it said ‘SAVE’, judging by the vowels. Though, the other option also had an ‘A’ and an ‘E’. 

“So, what does this do?” Bam motioned at the left option.   
“If you press SAVE, you create your first SAVE file.” 

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Bam retorted, “I mean what does this SAVE file thingamajig _do_?”

Khun chuckled, “When you are in danger, you can load the file and it will bring you back to this point in void.”

“I’m going to need you to explain that in English.” Bam could see the satisfaction in Khun’s face. He had confused him on purpose.

“You go back in time to when you saved.” 

“Like a video game?” 

“Exactly like a video game.” Out of the corner of his eye, Bam saw a reflection from Khun’s hand, the one opposite from Bam’s position, as if trying to conceal it. But, with the shine of the SAVE point, the knife was a mirror. A mirror that Bam could see his own reflection on if it got close enough to him. Khun went on, “You can only keep one SAVE file at a a time though, so if you SAVE a new file later, this one will be erased.” Bam slowly nodded in understanding and looked back at the board. 

When Bam looked at Khun’s hand again, the knife was gone. _I’m going to have to ask him how they do that… making things appear and disappear at will. And why he had a knife in the first place._

Bam shook off the worse thoughts as Khun said, “What are you waiting for, now? Press SAVE.”

Bam did.

* * *

Khun hated naiveness, and Bam was the embodiment of it. Thus, Khun hated Bam _to some extent_.

_Why would he come to a place like this?_ Khun asked himself, already knowing the answer. No one came to Mt. Ebott with a reason other than a) selfishly wanting to conquer the Tower; b) suicide; or, in his and Bam’s case, c) they _had_ to. And he couldn’t bring himself to hate Bam for that “feeling” of belonging to the Tower despite never having been there. It was a connection he couldn’t overlook.

But Khun had a duty, and he wanted to get it over with quickly before overthinking. He had convinced Bam to accompany him-albeit unwillingly. 

Then the _weed_ situation happened and messed his plan up. _Of course_ Khun wouldn’t be the only one out to get a human SOUL, but he didn’t think someone would come out this early. 

He could’ve let the flower do most of the job for him, but he told Bam to dodge the drug-looking pill-bullets. Khun might commit murder, but he had standards, and it included not forcing the boy into a corner by having two murderers surrounding him. Only one person should have the blood in their hands. Very morbid standards, but standards nonetheless. 

…That wasn’t why he told Bam to dodge the bullets, regardless of how many times he told himself that it _was_ the reason.

Because, _to some extent_ , he felt bad for Bam. Should Khun tell Bam how unfair his very existence is? How Khun tried to prevent this situation as he dug his knife deeper into flesh? He’d be a hypocrite in front of Bam then—a dying Bam—, but the other thing at stake was an entire civilization’s freedom. 

Would you sacrifice a boy you tried to save for people you don’t have reason to care about? At least, not anymore? 

It’s the new trolley dilemma. Flip the switch? Push the man? Kill the child?

He had to choose quickly. Khun believed Goseng was bringing Bam to her home, his own home once, and if he got there he’d be safe from murderers. Khun didn’t fear fighting Goseng over Bam. He feared the trauma he’d cause his mother if he was caught in the middle of the act. Or finding the body afterwards.

Mercy or fight? Whichever would it be?

It felt like a game. This trolley dilemma felt like a game of life and death. A disturbing game that no one should play, and yet Khun was feeling played. Khun did not like being played. He liked to win, and how would he win?

If he freed monster-kind, he would have played straight into his puppet-master’s hands. 

If he let the boy live, he would cut the strings binding his actions, and he wouldn’t be a murderer. In fact, if he helped Bam through the Underground like he “lied”… it would be a double win, a double middle-finger to whoever thought was in control of Khun Aguero Agnis. The thought pleased him.

And, Khun wanted the fun that was stolen from him back. Navigating Bam, the last needed human, through a Tower filled with vengeful spirits would be... interesting at the very least. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to dictionary definition, nascency is “just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.”
> 
> Don’t forget to keep the culmination of your being at 60% water. Stay hydrated, and see you in two weeks!

**Author's Note:**

> Summary of Chapter: A synopsis of the Tower's existence, and somewhat of a backstory for the protagonist. The main part of the chapter was all first impressions.
> 
> Explain the Title: It’s from a fan album for Undertale, “Determination: The Purple Side" by RichaadEB and AceWaters. I liked it a lot, so I might include more of their song titles as chapter titles. And uh, give the album a listen. It's on Bandcamp. Maybe listen while you're reading this story (kekeke).
> 
> Uhm, thanks for your interest in this. Feedback is not demanded, but appreciated. Also, since this is my first time writing fan fiction here, I might have gotten a few categories and whatnot wrong. So, if I did, and you notice, please kindly tell me (and bear with me).
> 
> Updates for the story are going to be... maybe two chapters a month or something. Depends. Don't be scared by the 40+ chapters, though... it might be more than that.
> 
> The tags say that this is Tower of God characters following Undertale's plot, and while that may be true, there's a lot of things I changed about the Undertale plot. If you watched a play-through or played Undertale yourself, you'll notice very quickly what's already different. Imagine those sort of changes every chapter building upon each other.
> 
> The last thing I want to add is that this story is half-focused on Bam's travel through the Tower and half-focused in someone else's story. If I'm good I'll be able to pull that trick off, and if I'm not... then I'll just make Bam's travel interesting, haha.
> 
> Oh, but a lot of of interesting things are bound to happen.


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